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In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Tony Fadell wrote about the future of the Internet in an article titled “All Around Us, Nothing but Net.” Below are some of his observations:

“In many ways, the Internet of the future will feel different from the Internet we know today. Instead of seeking it out, we’ll be surrounded by it. And instead of extracting data from it, we’ll be fed a constant stream of curated, personalized information to help us solve problems and live better—and live better together”

“Tomorrow’s Internet will be everywhere and in everything. It will draw on massive amounts of data to augment our own intelligence. And it will help us make better decisions—from avoiding dangerous drug interactions to diagnosing illnesses to deciding when water skiing might not be the best idea”

“It took the telephone more than 45 years to earn a place in the majority of American homes. The Internet did it almost three times as fast”

“If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that the Internet of the future will be everywhere—and the more people who have it, the more important it will become”

The response to my recent BlogTalkRadio program “Why You Should Be Concerned About Identity Theft,” was overwhelming. My guest, Steven Weisman and I discussed some of the reasons and ways that identity theft occurs.

Many of you wanted to know what to do if you were a victim of identity theft. This week, Steve returned to discuss what you should be doing if you find that your identity has been stolen. Here are several of the topics that Steve and I covered.

– The importance of filing a police report

– Initiate a credit freeze

– How to correct your credit report

– How to deal with debt collectors

– What you should be doing about your passwords

In case you missed the interview, you can hear the complete program by clicking on the blogtalkradio logo below.

What is the cloud? Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud now? Whether or not you understand “The Cloud,” chances are you have been using it for years.

Simply stated, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. Having your data in the cloud means you can access it from any computer or any of your mobile devices (smartphones and tablets).

According to Ron Winslow’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Smartphones also offer the capability to track people’s symptoms and activities continuously in their daily lives. In many conventional studies, patients might have just a few clinic visits a year for tests and symptom updates, and those snapshots may not provide a detailed picture.”

“Patients say symptoms fluctuate over the course of a day, but we’ve never had a way of measuring that,” said Ray Dorsey, a University of Rochester researcher who heads the Parkinson’s app study. With a smartphone, patients and researchers can observe symptoms that may change hourly and see how the changes correlate with factors such as exercise, meal times and medication dose. The phone also objectively records measurements of activities—minutes of exercise, steps walked, hours of sleep—which in conventional studies are typically obtained from less-reliable patient recall.

Are you concerned about all the reports of personal information being stolen from corporate data bases?

According to most sources, approximately 15 million United States residents have their identities used fraudulently each year.

Close to 100 million additional Americans have their personal identifying information placed at risk of identity theft each year.

Steve Weisman, one of the country’s leading experts on scams and identity theft, offers the following tips for cleaning digital house:

– Make birthdates private on Facebook. Hackers glean personal information, such as age and location, from social media accounts to piece together social security numbers. By keeping birthdates private and opting for snail mailed birthday wishes, identity thieves have one less resource.

– Delete saved credit card numbers. To safeguard against data breaches, remove credit card numbers on file with retailers and enter them anew with each purchase.
– Swap generic passwords with tailored phrases. Use a strong and unique password for each frequented online website. A password made up of a phrase such as “IDon’tLikePasswords$$$” combines capital letters, small letters and symbols and is easy to remember. Personalize for a particular site by taking a few letters from the site and adding it to the password. An Amazon password would be “IDon’tLikePasswords$$$Ama.”

– Remove old anti-virus and anti-malware software and install updated versions. Keep devices safe and secure with the latest software and security patches as soon as they are available. Keystroke logging malware can invade devices with weak security and capture credit card information.

Recently, I interviewed Steve on my BlogTalkRadio program. To hear the complete interview, click on the image below.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims, it might not be the best time to run out and buy the new Apple watch.

That’s not a knock against Apple Inc., or any of the other makers of smartwatches, whose devices are encumbered by the same design and technological limitations. It does mean, however, that anyone who isn’t a self-described early adopter might want to avoid the entire category of wearables, at least for a few more years.